Dr. Thomas Ahlering, professor and vice chairman of the urology department at UC Irvine's School of Medicine, sits in the operating room with the da Vinci Surgical System (Register photo).

“Selling a surgical robot” [Sept. 22], on Dr. Thomas Ahlering and Dr. Ralph Clayman by stating my own bias. In March 2012, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Having received three strong recommendations, my wife and I chose Dr. Thomas Ahlering to perform my prostatectomy. I was in the hospital overnight, walked two miles the next day and was back at work in a week (it could have been sooner). The nerve sparing was a complete success.

To me this was a “hit piece” on UCI and both doctors. I don't doubt the facts, but using words like “touting,” “praising” and “campaigning” to describe the doctors' efforts to promote this kind of surgery simply pushes the writer's preconceived conclusion. These kinds of articles are always good at giving numbers out of context. Sure, 71 deaths sounds horrible, but that was after how many surgeries? Where are comparisons between death rates with surgeries done by hand? The increased cost of the procedure is mentioned, but what is the cost of four or five extra days in the hospital?

I also question the reporter's bias against the free market. It is easy to write about profits, but how much did the company Intuitive spend on research and development? The company took the risk, and is the only one that has produced a machine that can do this operation. It is hard to differentiate between the doctors' promotion of this procedure and their promotion of this proprietary machine when it is the only one in existence.

Even the article says that 80 percent of prostatectomies are done by robot now. The train has left the station. This article reads like a crusading reporter in 1930 alarmed by traffic deaths writing a hit piece on Henry Ford. I think a better use of your ink would have been to do an article on the amazing pioneering work by Ahlering and Clayman and the vision that UCI had to pursue this procedure.

Dr. Ahlering told me at my first check-up after my surgery, “Don't think of yourself as a cancer survivor, think of this as simply part of your medical history,” and I do. I am very grateful for my general practitioner, who told me to go to an urologist; for my urologist, who said I should have a biopsy; and for Dr. Ahlering and the staff at UCI. If not for them, I would probably die a very painful death in a few years.

Playing down abortion

COSTA MESA, Jim Golding: As a former Catholic I was delighted to see Pope Francis disavow some of the obscene excesses of the former Vatican [“Pope wants church to focus less on gays and abortion,” News, Sept. 20]. My delight has turned to shock.

For the leader of 1 billion faithful to dismiss central moral issues of our day as “obsessed” with “small things” and “small-minded rules,” relating to abortion, homosexuality and contraception, portends I fear, a slide into an antinomian abyss; conforming to the culture – rather than transforming it.

He wants to focus, instead, on healing and mercy. Awesome. How about taking a stand against murder? His “focus” has become his blindness.

When the most dangerous place for a child is its mother's womb, and our spiritual leaders think it's a “small thing,” we're witnessing something as apocalyptic as the decline of civilization.

Stay out of Syria

DANA POINT, Jim Harley: Professor Robert Kaufman's column “A staggering blow in Syria” [Sept. 22] says that the United States has suffered a staggering defeat in Syria, with dire ramifications beyond the Middle East.

All of Kaufman's verbal hand-wringing is due to the American government's refusal to immediately bomb (and perhaps invade) Syria based on a suspicion that the Syrian regime used poison gas on its own citizens.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com.
Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published).
Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds
each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.